All in a Day's Work - Guest Blogger

Vol 2. No. 29

All in a Day’s Work

Our Guest Blogger this week is FLCC’s Assistant Director of Marketing and Creative Services. She’s introducing the new Honors Studies online presence and giving insight into the “how and why” behind flcc.edu/honors

If you’re a current or future FLCC student, you probably don’t know me, but you’ve likely read A LOT of my words and seen A LOT of my work. I’m generally pretty anonymous around here, and yet, you and I have had something of a conversation going as you’ve read the different things I’ve written for the College. I have a long title, but it won’t really describe what I do or why it matters to you, so here’s a quick overview of my work instead:

• I created the printed publications that were mailed to your home to introduce you to FLCC when you first started making your college plans. From blank sheets of paper to what you held in your hand, I created those pieces. Same goes for a lot of the posters and handouts around campus, not to mention those fancy driveway banners you passed on your way onto campus.
• I played a major role in the FLCC commercials that you’ve seen on TV or on YouTube. (Shameless plugs: Find Your Fit , Find Your Path , and Find Your Future. Can you believe that we did all that with just a handful of FLCC employees, and we featured our actual faculty and students!? And I’m sure you noticed that Honors was highlighted, of course!).  
• I’ve played a pretty big role in the photos and written words on many of FLCC’s webpages, which you have certainly visited many times as you’ve navigated your college experience. From homepage banners to the nitty gritty about academic programs, I’ve crafted many of the words you’ve read on the FLCC website.

That last bullet is the one that matters the most to Honors fans today as we announce the launch of a completely revamped web presence for FLCC’s Honors Studies. In addition to unveiling the new webpages (and, honestly, bragging just a little bit), I’d like to give you a glimpse behind the curtain. It’s not everyday that I get to share our behind-the-scenes process with our web visitors!

Everything you see at flcc.edu/honors was the result of collaborative work between Trista Merrill (Director of Honors Studies), Chuck Woods (Web Services Coordinator), and me. As a trio, our individual workload ebbed and flowed as the project shifted from one phase to another, giving each of us the chance to really hone in on our unique contributions from our separate areas of expertise.

We kicked off the project with a fact-finding mission to collect as much information as possible about Honors. As we culled through the information, we organized data and created a roadmap for the webpages. Once we had a skeleton in place, we got to work fleshing it out with written content and photography. For me, this is really the fun part, especially with an area like Honors Studies. We know that intellectual exploration and self-reflection are at the heart of Honors Studies, so every word and every photo were intentionally selected; together, they illustrate the uniqueness of Honors Studies. Once the pages were created, our team of three reviewed and approved, made minor modifications, and launched the live pages.

Typically, that’s where web projects resolve. However, Honors Studies has always maintained a great social media presence, so we decided to incorporate the Honors Twitter, Facebook, Blogspot, and Flickr pages into our project, giving each of them the same look and feel as the new webpages for a cohesive web experience from the FLCC site to the various social media platforms. These makeovers were important in this project because we know that the Honors community is tightknit, and engagement isn’t limited to seminars; we know that Honors students and faculty continue their conversations online after the class adjourns, and social media is an important part of that connection.

The overarching goal of our project was to showcase the Honors experience, both through words and visuals. This meant not only describing the experience, but describing it in a specific way: it’s a conversation that we’ve started with the reader, tapping into their curiosity and desire to do more, learn more, and explore more. I hope that as you interact with these new webpages, you’ll agree that we’re reflecting the Honors values and paying homage to the Honors experience that we’ve heard about from so many different perspectives.

You already know that Honors Studies provides an unbelievable opportunity to engage with other learners, expand your learning, and explore both new and familiar topics in unexpected ways. Believe me, this isn’t an experience that you’ll find everywhere, so I hope that you’ll take full advantage of Honors during your time at FLCC, and I hope our new online presence will encourage other learners to delve into Honors Studies, too!

Honors Voices

Vol.1 No. 6

This week, while I’m in Seattle and not quite ready to tell you all about what I’m learning here, I thought it might be fun to hear some other voices. So, this blog is going to introduce you to some of the faces behind Honors. The following burbs are from the five FLCC faculty and staff members who sit on the Honors Advisory Board. I rely on these folks to give advice, share ideas, explore possibilities, and work out issues of all types within Honors. I cannot express how valuable this group is to the future of Honors and to all the things that I’ve been working on since I took over the directorship. So, I thought you should get the chance to meet them. I asked each of them to share with me a little statement about why they agreed to serve on the Board. I think you will hear each of their voices coming through, and I think you will also feel their dedication and their passion for all things Honors. And I hope that in this introduction, you can hear my appreciation and gratitude for all they do. These are not the only ones who support Honors by any means, but they are the ones who’ve agreed to let me call on their expertise regularly and repeatedly. So here they are, in no particular order...

Dr. Linda Ross

Faculty Member

My name is Dr. Linda Ross and I am an Associate Professor of Psychology in the Social Sciences Department. My specialty in psychology is clinical psychology and I have many years of treatment and teaching experience. I have always been extremely curious about how and why people become who they are as an adult. I have wondered again and again why does a given individual do the things that they do and how did they become a person who thinks and feels and behaves that way? Honors Studies courses provide me with a venue for sharing with interested students some of the research that has resulted from this burning curiosity, exploring such topics as: How does a person become gay, straight, asexual or bisexual; what kind of person kills their own children; what is the impact on a person of killing another human being?

I am serving on the Honors Advisory Board because, quite simply, Honors Studies provides students with learning experiences that are not typically available to them through standard curriculum. Between the small class size, the emphasis on student-driven discussion and self-reflection and, the wide range of highly focused subject matter from many disciplines, students have the opportunity to indulge their curiosities. Honors Studies provide students and the faculty who teach them with intellectually rich learning opportunities to explore specific topics of interest in greater depth and detail than might otherwise be available. It is this combination of focus on a specific topic in greater depth and the opportunity for students to stretch both their thinking, their academic skill set and to have the opportunity to indulge their curiosity that makes Honors Studies experiences so important to support and develop.

Johnathan Murray

One Stop

Hi, curious ones. I am Johnathan Murray, the Assistant Director of the One Stop Center. I am an FLCC alum, RIT alum, and current Keuka College student (2017). I am an educator, student, bird watcher, gamer, amateur photographer, baker, and Tolkien fan. Why am I interested in Honors? I am proud of the Honors Program at FLCC, of its uniqueness, its mission, and the opportunities it provides to our students. I think the course offerings are cool! I am appreciative of our engaged and enthusiastic faculty involved in the program.

I was asked to be part of the Honors Group for my expertise in enrollment services, I stay involved because of my excitement for the program.

Vera Whisman

Faculty Member and Assessment Coach

Who am I? My name is Vera Whisman. I’m a sociologist, with a Ph.D. from New York University. I have taught, researched, and published in gender studies and social movements. I grew up in Oklahoma, but I’ve also lived in St. Louis, New York City, Provincetown, and until recently, Ithaca. My partner Shari and I have been together for 29 years, and married for two. Our son is a college junior.

What have I done in Honors Studies? I’ve been teaching in HS since I arrived at FLCC as an adjunct instructor. My first course was Green Grrrls and Earth Mothers, an interdisciplinary course in feminist and environmentalist movements. Since then, I’ve taught the interdisciplinary social science course, “Women in Society” as an Honors course. (That course will continue under the broader name, “Gender and Women’s Studies.”) I also offer an Honors section of Introduction to Sociology.

I sit on the Honors Studies Advisory Board, and I helped in the review of the curriculum for the Honors Studies Certificate.

What draws me to teaching in Honors Studies at FLCC? First, the students: HS courses draw students who are curious and interested, who want to learn--and to think, talk, and write about what they’re learning. Second, the structure: HS courses work for my students and work for me because they offer small classes in a seminar setting, encourage exploration of unusual topics and methods, and are supported by a pedagogy of reflective learning.

What are my hopes for the future of Honors Studies at FLCC? I’d like to see HS continue to lead the way in nurturing an intellectual campus culture. For example: at my son’s high school, students were encouraged to understand that “Everyone is an Athlete.” The idea was that athleticism is not for just a small number of gifted people, but rather something that everyone can and should participate in. I’d like to see HS communicating that “Everyone is an Intellectual,” that the life of the mind is something we all can participate in, that it’s not something to be left to only a small number of gifted people.

Jennie M. Erdle

Student Life

Some may think that a Student Life and Honors Studies pairing might not make much sense, but I hope the following may shed light on how this truly has been a relationship built long ago, and how this collaboration only enhances the holistic student experience for our students.

As a Higher Education practitioner, it is important to be mindful of the principles of good practice for Student Life. It is also important to be consistent with core values which have been documented throughout the literature of the profession to enrich each of our institutions mission. Since 1937 when the American Council on Education published the first Student Personnel Point of View, the field has produced many documents about student life work. These works span seven decades, examining student life from different perspectives and for different purposes. They demonstrate the long-standing belief that higher education has a responsibility to develop citizens capable of contributing to the betterment of society. These documents affirm the conviction that higher education professionals have a duty to help students reach their full potential.

Our beliefs about higher education serve as the foundation for our commitment to the development of "the whole person"; our collective professional values are derived from that commitment. Values evident across the history of student life work include an acceptance and appreciation of individual differences; lifelong learning; education for effective citizenship; student responsibility; ongoing assessment of learning and performance (students' and our own); pluralism and multiculturalism; ethical and reflective student affairs practice; supporting and meeting the needs of students as individuals and in groups; and freedom of expression with civility. Any statement of principles of good practice for student affairs must be consistent with our profession's values and must help us meet our founding commitments.

Do this beliefs and principles sound familiar? They should, because much of what is at the heart Honors Studies program fall within these same learning outcomes. With these thoughts in mind, to take part in the Honors Studies transition has been a blessing and an honor. I have enjoyed working with the academic side of Finger Lakes Community College from the inception of a new mission and vision, to the development of learning outcomes. It has been truly a joy to celebrate all that honors studies has to offer the “whole student”.

FLCC Marketing Office

The main function of the Marketing Office is to share FLCC’s unique features and benefits with future students and their families because we know that this information is critical during college selection. We also know that FLCC offers various opportunities that people expect to only find at a large college or university. One of these unique and interesting options is the Honors Studies Program, which marries creativity with intellect, features active group discussion, and is centered on personal reflection and reflective writing. As experts on the market and our audience, we know that a substantial segment of the population is seeking this type of college experience because it is challenging, dynamic, insightful, and unlike any other learning method they’ve ever experienced. Plus, the faculty and students in the Honors Studies Program are passionate about their in-class and out-of-class learning experiences, and their enthusiasm is contagious. For these reasons, the Marketing Office is thrilled to serve on the Honors Program Board and participate as an active supporter of this successful and expanding effort.

 “Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much” - Helen Keller